Broken Anomaly

It had only been a few seconds since he became the wall that stopped most of the barghest from getting into the lobby, but he could already feel his body giving out. He still had more than enough mana to keep his stone armor active, however the barghest were different, they had gotten stronger and seemed to be more motivated than before. Due to this, they were tearing his stone armor apart at a rapid pace. The only good thing that came out of his current situation was that he could feel himself getting stronger, getting better at using his skill, his stats rising in response to being constantly attacked.

I don’t know how long I can last, but I will not move until my body gives out. I will not move until— his thoughts were cut short.

Zzztt— BOOOM!

An explosion could be heard by everyone in the building. Sadly, the sound of the explosion only affected the survivors and Alex felt it, as the ones who were killing the barghest were also momentarily distracted by the explosion. The few seconds the attackers were distracted, Alex was overwhelmed enough that he fell to one knee and the barghest could jump over him more easily. Some of the attackers came back to their senses in time to defend themselves while others only did so when they heard the screams of their comrades.

Zzztt— BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!

More explosions could be heard, as Stella ran back downstairs and started shooting her fireballs at the barghest that had gotten in. Sadly, three of the attackers had died because they didn’t defend themselves in time and another died because she had defended the injured Tony, who was near the gym door. When Stella was done with the barghest that got inside, she shifted her focus toward the ones that were on top of Alex, every fireball she shot, singeing his hair a little.

When Alex felt that the barghest that were on top of him were no longer there, he got up and with considerable effort, returned to his original position. At this point the remaining attackers had gotten back into position and started stabbing from behind Alex once more. Windows started to alert Alex of his achievements, but he mentally dismissed them all and tried to vacate his mind of any thoughts. He gritted his teeth and increased the amount of armor he was using, while also making it stronger.

“Aaagh! Come on!” Alex yelled to himself.

Marcus was still on the second floor, with his right hand pressed against the wall as he used it as support. He was sweating profusely, even though all he had done was throw some bombs into the horde. The reason for his exhaustion was due to the Mana manipulation skill, it had only helped with his own mana, as only his own mana could work with the devices he created. However, he currently had no more mana and was forcefully using the ambient mana and it was taking a visible toll on him. He was barely using enough to “ignite” the mana within the bomb and even that sliver of mana left him more tired than he had ever been in his entire life.

“Should have gotten a mana increase skill instead,” Marcus said as he forced himself to stand up straight again and primed more bombs. “Next time.”

Zzztt— BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!

-------------

Anna and Ed headed back to the first floor, having finally cleared the entire building, however unlike Eric and his friends, they didn’t get a safe zone. Instead, they just got a window confirming that they cleared the building. At some point, the safe zone reward had changed to a simple experience reward. When they arrived on the first floor, they saw that the group near the entrance was unsettled. Curious about what was going on, they walked towards the group, Anna being the first to speak.

“Lester, what’s going on?” she asked to the old man who had been using the chair that Ed had asked for.

“It’s the monster. It got up, looked inside and then started to walk away.”

“So why don’t they go out?” she asked with a slight frown.

“Some more monsters were following behind it. They’re afraid there might be more hiding around.”

“Did you get a sense of where they were going?”

“Maybe the parking lot, it seemed to walk straight forward. But oh, I don’t know.”

“Got it,” Anna said as she took a deep breath. “Well Ed, I’m taking this chance. Come or don’t,” she finished speaking and left the building, easily moving the people away that tried to stop her.

Ed was scared of the giant beast that had sat outside the building, as if waiting for them to come out. Ed was scared of the monsters that roamed outside and followed the giant beast. But more than anything, Ed was scared of doing nothing and everybody in the building, apart from the playful woman and him, were doing nothing. He grabbed the makeshift spear he had made from a wooden broom and exited the building, following Anna.

When the door closed behind Ed as he left the building, Lester let out a small smile as he walked through the nervous group of people, as if he were a ghost.

“Still a brat after all these years,” he said shaking his head, his tone playful. “Don’t keep your grandparents waiting for too long,” he said as he started to vanish. “Oops, almost forgot your present.”

-------------

While everyone was doing their best to kill the barghest, Tony was being treated for the bite that he had gotten while they retreated. He looked at the dead woman who was beside him, he didn’t even know her name, all he knew about her was that she was one of the first people to help him last night. They barely knew each other yet she died trying to defend him from the barghest that attacked him, even now two others remained at his side to protect him.

The treatment he had received was only a piece of cloth that was tied up slightly higher than were he had been bitten and Stella bringing her fireball close to his wound, in an attempt to cauterize it. Stella had been doubtful since she herself felt no heat from the flame but was pleasantly surprised to see that it actually worked. Once Stella was finished, Tony got up and tried to grab a wooden spear and help the attackers but was stopped by Stella.

“Go upstairs and help Marcus,” she said with urgency in her voice.

Tony only nodded and headed upstairs, finding Marcus hanging over the opening in the wall, breathing heavily and covered in sweat. Tony brought him in and sat him down, with his back against the wall.

“What’s wrong?” he asked with worry in his voice.

However, Marcus couldn’t answer him, the feeling of weakness that came from mana exhaustion now having permeated throughout his entire body. All the energy he had left was barely enough to allow him to breath, very weakly at that.

“Come on man, Stella is going to kill me.”

Marcus reacted to the mention of Stella and lifted his arm, pointing at his backpack and spoke with a weak voice. “Give…. Me….”

Before he finished, Tony had already given him his backpack. Marcus started to move both his hands, seemingly moving something into the backpack, as he did so, he spoke once more. “Throw…. Fast…. Hurry….” Marcus then collapsed after he finished speaking.

Tony was startled by Marcus’s collapse, but before he could even process what was happening, his body started to move on its own. He grabbed the backpack with one hand started throwing the bombs with the other. He had only thrown out two when he realized that there were too many to throw one by one, so he threw the backpack with all its contents into the monster horde.

Zzztt— BOOOM! BOOOM!

Everybody heard the explosions from the bombs that Tony had thrown individually and ignored it, continuing to do what they were doing, but the sound that followed next was different.

zzzzzztttt!!! Zzzzzzzttttt!!! zzzzzzttttt! zzzzzttttt

The sound of the crackling electricity became audible by everyone; this hadn’t happened with the previous explosions. Even the giant beast, who had ignored all the previous explosions, turned to see what the noise was. The barghest also stopped their attack, allowing Alex to also notice that something was different about his surroundings. He could feel all his hair stand on end and a tingling sensation permeate through his body and without hesitation he yelled.

“EVERYBODY RUN!!”

Everybody who was still in the lobby ran into the gym, trying to reach the furthest part they could, Alex being the last of the group.

ZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTTTTT!!!

When they heard the even louder crackling of electricity, they all fell to the floor, in an attempt to escape whatever was about to happen and hopefully survive the explosion that followed. To their surprise there was no follow-up explosion, the loud crackling was the last thing they heard, everything was silent now, not even the barghest could be heard anymore.

After a few seconds of laying on the ground, they started to get ready to receive the attack of the barghest that would rush in, but none came. With Alex in front of the group, they all headed toward the lobby and saw that the barghest were all on the floor, unresponsive. One of the attackers pierced the closest one in the head with their spear and realized they got no experience points. The attackers did this for a while, and finally someone spoke.

“They’re all dead.”

Slowly the group headed outside only to see the beast, some retreating back inside. Both Alex and Stella continued unhindered, Alex stomped on the head of a barghest while Stella threw a fireball, confirming that the barghest died from the bomb.

Alex stood firmly looking at the giant beast, who seemed unfazed by the death of its horde, in fact it seemed more amused by the situation than anything. Stella walked and stood beside Alex, also staring at the beast. Alex clenched his fists, barely covering them in stone, Stella prepared a fireball and tried to start another on her left hand but failed. Still, both were ready to fight the giant beast.

“Well, well, well. You lot are more than expected,” said a voice coming from within the trees.

The voice was calm, playful in nature, but possessed an arrogance they’d never heard before. Slowly from the trees emerged an even bigger beast, similar to the one that had brought the horde, but with white fur instead of yellow. It was the beast that had stayed near the administration building and with it came another wave of monsters, less than before, but more than they could handle.

“You arrived early. I was just about to have a meal,” said the yellow furred beast, with a similar tone.

“I got bored and came to watch.”

The bravery that had formed inside both Alex and Stella completely evaporated once they saw the two beasts staring at them. Stella’s fireball fizzled out and the stone that covered Alex’s fists crumbled, falling to the ground. The others that were closely behind them and those that stayed in the lobby also lost all the fighting spirit they had left, some even letting go of their weapon and falling to their knees.

The yellow beast started to walk toward the Alex and Stella, when it came into range, Stella used Inspect.

Urstigar: Species specially engineered to serve as initial invaders, deployed before the first wave of incursions.

“What?!” Stella exclaimed, the description bringing her back to her senses.

“Did you finally see what awaits you? Hmm?” the yellow urstigar said in a mocking tone. “The Monarchs will take your world. We are just here to clear the rubble.”

“Stop playing with the rubble,” said the white urstigar, as he motioned for the barghest that followed it to attack.

Alex wanted to ask what Stella had seen that made her react the way she did, but the actions of the white urstigar stopped him from doing so.

“Everybody get ready! More are coming!” Alex yelled, hoping that the others still had some fight in them.

Most of the fighters grabbed their spears and prepared to fight once more, while the others remained on the ground, no hope present in their eyes. Luckily for everyone, the barghest stopped mid-advance, as they were attacked by two people that came running out of the trees.

The white urstigar let out a small snort, as if expecting this to happen. Because it did, it noticed them leaving the building and it also noticed how they went around and avoided its group. It had left them alone out of curiosity. It had heard the sound of fighting that came from within the building, its senses being powerful enough that it could also make out that only two people had fought. Now it was looking at the only prey that it considered worthy and the one that made it feel odd was nowhere to be seen.

“My meal is here,” the white urstigar said, as it walked forward and stood next to the yellow furred one.

When Alex and Stella saw Anna coming out from the trees, they were happy, but their happiness lasted little, as they had to fight the barghest that were now between them and the giant urstigar.

Alex jumped into the battle, making an effort to make his way towards Anna. Every single one of punches carried more power than ever, his advance being aided by Stella, as she threw fireballs at every weakened barghest. The fighters who were still willing to fight, had already made it towards the battle and had stopped the barghest advance completely.

Anna was still using a pair of scissors as her main weapons, having gotten considerably adept at wielding them. But due to their short reach, it still took her some time and considerable risk, to kill a single enemy. Ed was helping her by being a distraction and keeping most of the barghest at bay with his makeshift spear. Everyone had felt an energy empowering them to fight harder than before, to strike harder than before, that allowed them to fight longer than before. Most of the ones who had given up had even gotten up and joined the fight. The end was near, and they either all died, or they fought for whatever slim hope remained.

Soon all the barghest had died and Alex was covered in wounds, as was everyone, there were only a few steps between him and Anna. As he started to take his first steps forward, he could see how Anna’s face started to distort, only for his vision to become blurry. Piercing pain started to invade his left arm, he then felt himself hit the floor, not even realizing when he had left it to begin with.